Tantra is a spiritual movement that originates and was further developed mainly in India. Tantra is not a kind of a religion, it is rather considered as a worldly view or a view of the essence and character of life which is immediately transformed into practice and experienced. Often we distinguish between Hindu and Buddhist Tantra, although the bases are identical. Sanskrit texts or “Tantras“ rooted in both Buddhist and Hindu traditions, are one of the key principles which form the basis of Yogic practices and outline spiritual exercises. Tantra is better to be seen as an all-encompassing spiritual approach which incorporates and influences other religions.
Tantra is aimed at perceiving the life as a continuous possibility of never-ending self-development and formation. This continuous development is determined by the Tantric understanding of the spiritual and physical world. Tantra can see everything as a kind of vibration, not only of the light and sound, which is western minded, but also in our body, material things, and the whole world around us are interconnected at various frequencies.
In Tantra we do not try to suppress or push away our feelings, on the contrary, the Tantric approach is aimed at integrating everything into a one complex whole. This approach can be easily seen in our own body – in Tantra we try to explore our body, in order to understand and find all places where we store energy of any feelings, ideas or experience. These places of stored energy are unblocked and once flowing, they are integrated into a wider flow of our energy until these energies get united. Therefore the key aspect of Tantra is faith in the existence of various energy fields, paths, and frequencies which work together. The Human body is an organized “structure” of different energies which spiritual philosophers have studied and described in their works. Thereafter they searched for appropriate techniques and processes of how to uplift these energies.
In terms of human beings, Tantra considers humans as a microcosm, whereas the universe as a macrocosm, which are interconnected and alike. This approach helps us understand the interconnection of human´s psyche, thoughts and physics and begin to work with them.
Tantric exercise is challenging. Getting to know one’s true self is not easy. Truly understanding and knowing oneself, means feeling because the tantric approach involves the whole inner being, not just the rational left hemisphere.